You’ve come a long way baby…. - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

You’ve come a long way baby…. . The History of Women in Medicine Amy Jost, class of 2004. Overview of the Talk. Women pioneers and their stories – from the middle ages to present day Changing Perspectives in recent decades The Current Situation – where do we go from here?.

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"At Florence Nightingale's house, London. July the 30th. Eighteen hundred and ninety. When I am no longer even a memory, just a name, I hope my voice may perpetuate the great work of my life. God bless my dear old Comrades at Balaclava and bring them safe to shore."

“An incident is just now being discussed in military circles so extraordinary that, were not the truth capable of being vouched for by official authority, the narration would certainly be deemed incredible. Our officers quartered at the Cape between 15 and 20 years ago may remember a certain Dr Barry attached to the medical staff there, and enjoying a reputation for considerable skill in his profession, especially for firmness, decision and rapidity in difficult operations… upon his death was discovered to be a woman. The motives that occasioned and the time when commenced this singular deception are both shrouded in mystery.

“But thus it stands as an indisputable fact, that a woman was for 40 years an officer in the British service, and fought one duel and had sought many more, had pursued a legitimate medical education, and received a regular diploma, and had acquired almost a celebrity for skill as a surgical operator.“

To earn money to support studies, Elizabeth turned to teaching and arranged to live in a physician’s household.

Studied medicine for the year she lived here

However, she failed to gain acceptance to any established medical schools

Home of Samuel Dickson, M.D.

Physicians were uniformly discouraging: “Elizabeth, it is of no use trying. Thee cannot gain admission to these schools. Thee must go to Paris and don masculine attire to gain the necessary knowledge.” (Dr. Joseph Warrington, known to be a liberal-minded physician of the time)

“A lady, on his invitation, entered, whom he formally introduced as Miss Elizabeth Blackwell…A hush fell upon the class as if each member had been stricken with paralysis. A death-like stillness prevailed during the lecture, and only the newly arrived student took notes. She retired with the professor, and thereafter came in with him and sat on the platform during the lecture.”

“I had not the slightest idea of the commotion created by my appearance as a medical student in the little town. Very slowly I perceived that a doctor’s wife at the table avoided any communication with me, and that as I walked backwards and forwards to college the ladies stopped to stare at me, as at a curious animal. I afterwards found that I had so shocked Geneva propriety that the theory was fully established either that I was a bad woman, whose designs would gradually become evident, or that, being insane, an outbreak of insanity would soon be apparent.”

Her professor suggested that she stay away on the days reproductive anatomy was demonstrated

She stated she wished simply to be treated as another student

"November 22.--A trying day, and I feel almost worn out, though it was encouraging too, and in some measure a triumph; but 'tis a terrible ordeal! That dissection was just as much as I could bear. Some of the students blushed, some were hysterical, not one could keep in a smile ... My delicacy was certainly shocked, and yet the exhibition was in some sense ludicrous. I had to pinch my hand till the blood nearly came ... Dr. Webster, who had perhaps the most trying position, behaved admirably." (Diary, Nov. 22, 1847)

In his graduation address, the Dean declared his wholehearted admiration for the first female M.D.

However, in the printed version of the address, he added the following footnote stating that, though he supported medical education for qualified women, the “inconveniences attending the admission of females to all the lectures in a medical school are so great that he will feel compelled on all future occasions to oppose such a practice…”

“It is perfectly evident from the records, that an opposition to women physicians has rarely been based on any sincere conviction that women could not be instructed in medicine, but upon an intense dislike to the idea that they should be so capable.” –Mary Putnam Jacobi, 1891